Day 48 – to Lecco, Italy
July 14 (Mon) – new city day, Happy Bastille Day / Bonne Fête Nationale, France! and the day I broke
- Travel days are always a bit chaotic. We packed, had breakfast, and got going.
- On the waterbus, we met a very nice French couple. We chatted in their broken English, my terrible attempt at French, and a bit of Google Translate. We talked about travel; they were doing a loop like us, but the other way around. They told us that the gondolas were 250€ per hour! Yikes! I told them the city I was born in and we all LOL’d. We also wished them a happy Bastille day / Bonne Fête Nationale.
- The train station was surprisingly kinda normal. I saw some more of that camel and cream luggage. It must be a thing; I wouldn’t know. Boarding went smooth despite a lot of kids in our car.
- We decided to skip Milan but had to change trains there. That station is built like a damn green house. WTF?
- Our second ride was in “first” class, but the train runs every hour so there was a ton of room and it was nice and quiet.
- Our hotel was okay, but the mini split was struggling to cool our room.
- We were so excited to find El Embajador Peruvian chicken right around the corner, but they didn’t serve the roasted chickens until 6pm, which really sucks when you don’t get lunch until 5pm. Our food was still good.
- We walked to lake front to check it out, sat on bench watching ducks, sailboats, and people.
- We then stopped at Sotto Fondo for a drink in their courtyard patio seating. I mistakenly ordered a tourist drink; it was on fire. I felt better later when someone else ordered a mule and it was also on fire.
- Back at the lakefront, we watched and listened to a whistling barefoot Italian dressed as a unicorn and playing an electric ukulele. It was quite the sight and he’s a lot of fun.
- We had an ultra-cheap nightcap at Café Diaz.
- And then I broke. The heat was the worst of it. I was tired of being too hot, tired of doing so much laundry from being so dang hot, and just plain tired. After venting to a friend–thanks again, Friend!–I figured out and told him some things I needed to try in case it would help. I was feeling lost and confused about our next few stops. I stopped knowing where we were and where we were going next. This trip was a lot more complicated than our last one was, so it was just too much for my way of thinking.
Day 49 – to Tirano, Italy
July 15 (Tue) – the day we fixed my broken
- Since I was “broken” and super stressed, I got terrible sleep.
- We had the usual hotel breakfast–it’s a small step up from continental.
- The track from Lecco to Tirano is being maintained, so we were set to take a bus. We had planned on the 12:05, but were ready early, so we took the 11:05 one with about a minute to spare. It was nearly empty, so we took a whole row.
- Well, wouldn’t you know it. The bus left late and was way more full because of so many later arrivals (who should have been on the 12:05). A couple with both their toddler and her parents got on, but didn’t like the entire row in front of us. The grands sat in two of those seats, the dad went to the way-back somewhere, and the mom sat across from me (and next to him), despite the pair of seats for her and the kid. Five seconds later, the toddler ditched grandma’s lap for mom’s. There were plenty of single travelers who could have sat next to him, but the dad had to go screw it up for everyone. The bus filled and then turned people away at future stops. The driver should have left on time instead of waiting for them all. Then, there likely would have been room for everyone who was on time.
- In the back, the infant-with-stroller (yes, they brought the damn thing inside instead of stowing it in the belly) went into screech mode for about five minutes. I like to think that was because toddler dad was avoiding his kid, wife, and inlaws.
- One of the later-comers was wearing a Greek shirt for a college abroad program. but the founders were too ignorant to know that there is no C in the Greek alphabet. So it’s CUpsilonAlpha with the Greek alphabet on the back of the shirt. It also has “Athen’s” on it. Maybe the founders and shirt designer shouldn’t have gotten into college.
- I got lucky. Almost everyone who wanted to get on was in pairs or more, so I got to ride with my empty seat nearly the whole way.
- Between the gorgeous views, I used the chaos to come up with a new tshirt idea (that I’m sure I’d never actually wear).
- Like many, the station is stairs, not elevators or escalators. A lost-looking (British?) family with more luggage than they could manage was rude at the train station. They were blocking the right side of the staircase. We said, “excúse” and moved past. Then, the dad got all huffy and claimed they were waiting to go down the stairs. No they weren’t. They were clearly looking around and not trying to figure out how to manage their kitchen-sink luggage. They weren’t even facing the stairs. Bring less crap, dude; you’ll be less stressed.
- We checked into our very cute hotel. There was no AirCon, but at least there was a fan. I feared a second sleepless night….and was very happy to be wrong.
- We weren’t hungry but had to eat before everything closed for siesta. We found lunch at El Trigo Pasta Fresca…where they have a sandwich with tonnato on it! It was Turkey, tomato, and “tuna sauce” (aka tonnato).
- We spent part of the afternoon streamlining the stuff I didn’t know so I could wrap my brain around it all. And I instantly felt a ton better. If you are in need of a travel app, wanderlog is pretty good. Their map is a little disappointing, but if you pay for it, you can export it to a Google Map and that’s great. It’s also a great place to store addresses, confirmation numbers, and other travel data you need to have at your fingertips. Another app that has come in very handy is the Google Translate with the camera feature. You can just point it at a menu and it will translate it for you if you have Internet access. No idea why there are two, but I’ve included the avatars/icons and explained it.
- For our evening, we planned and took a walking adventure with multiple stops including dinner. It was a nice little walk and a good way to see the little town. For dinner at Trattoria Gagin, he had Filetto Alla Griglia and I had Patate Saltate. Then, we walked more of the adventure and found spot for quick drinks, Merizzi.
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